Pai

Arrived a day late after getting waylaid in Chiang Mai. There's a bar there called La Brasserie (if you're ever passing) and the owner takes out his guitar every night and plays the most amazing covers of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Erick Clapton etc. His version of stairway had the audience nearly in tears, with every second man playing air guitar. And as he played "Cocaine" the crowd roared.
So I stayed in bed yesterday and had a hangover (after using the moat-trick to get home).

This morning was quite amusing, I took the air-conditioned van here with 11 other Thais, whereas the cheaper non air con, cramped bus was full of sweaty backpackers. The Thais have sense and I smugly arrived 30 minutes before the unwashed masses.

Due to its small size the mini-van could also motor quite fast and the road to Pai is "adventurous" to put it mildly. So that's another Disney ride I won't have to take. I'm going to start giving these drivers points soon, a bit like top trumps - categories will be:
a) Speed
b) Outragous overtaking manoeuvres
c) Disregard for road signs
d) Bad taste in music

Well anyway, Pai is what you might call "off the beaten track", not quite "off", but damn close. It is also one of the most laid-back, relaxed and generally cool places this side of Stoned, Arizona. The locals walk so slowly that they have to periodically scrub the moss from their shoes. I rented a mountain bike to visit the local waterfalls (10 km away), but what the shop owner neglected to tell me was that of the 10km, 9.7 of them were uphill. The trip back was hilarious, unpaved roads, bunny hopping over chickens, swerving around semi-wild pigs, waving back at bemused locals ("what the fuck is that muddy white dude doing up here").
I would say it was worth it all, but ask me tomorrow when the muscle pains subside.

Off River Rafting to Mae Hong Song for two days tomorrow. So unless they have WLAN equipped rafts, I'll be seeing you on Saturday... If you're lucky. Or say pretty please.

ps. Strange Native Habit of the Day (SNHotD):
It is a national pastime here for men to openly pluck their chins with a tweezers. They take no prisoners and pluck and pull for seemingly hours on end.